Mid-career professionals dealing with technical aspects of water and wastewater treatment plants, working for municipalities, water supply agencies or consulting firms.

Bachelors degree in engineering or similar technical background meeting the MSc Programme entry requirements.

After successful completion of this module participants will be able to:

• describe the theoretical principles of the conventional water treatment;
• link the practical aspects with theoretical principles;
• determine design parameters from experimental studies.

This module covers the unit processes in a conventional water treatment scheme. It addresses the common treatment units from the point of raw water entry to the point of clear water production.

Coagulation: Theory of coagulation and flocculation processes: colloidal stability and mechanisms of destabilization, rapid and slow mixing, coagulation in practice and natural coagulants.

Sedimentation: Hydrodynamic principles of sedimentation and flotation, Stokes Law, principles of discrete settling, flocculent settling and hindered settling. Horizontal and vertical continuous flow basins, settling tanks, shape of inlets and outlets. Design of a rectangular horizontal sedimentation tank.

Filtration: General introduction to various types of filtration systems, Mechanical filtration, Slow sand filtration, Rapid sand filtration (pilot experiments, removal mechanisms, hydraulics, filter elements, rate control, backwashing, multi-layer filtration, applications, design considerations, filter arrangements, modelling, optimisation). Design aspects of the different filtration types.

Disinfection: Conventional disinfection, chlorination principles and practice and an overview of disinfection by products.

The contact hours in the module include: lectures, workshops (design exercises) and laboratory sessions. The lectures are presented by Powerpoint-slides and are made to be interactive. Participants will be given an individual assignment on the design of sedimentation tanks, in which they will use the knowledge acquired during the lectures and workshops. Four separate laboratory sessions on coagulation/flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and chlorination will illustrate the theories addressed in the lectures. A field trip to a water treatment will be organized.

UNESCO-IHE lecture notes and hand-outs:

• K. Ghebremichael, J Schippers, JP Buiteman, Coagulation/Flocculation (LN0056/07/01)
• S.K. Sharma, Sedimentation (LN 0007/07/1),
• M.W. Blokland, N. Trifunovic and S.K Sharma, Sedimentation: Workshop problems (LN0009/07/1)
• N. Graham, Filtration (LN0330/07/1);
• J.P. Buiteman and K. J. Ives Filtration Workshop Problems (LN 0023/07/1)
• L. Huisman, Rapid filtration, (LN 0022/86/1); Reference
• L. Huisman, Mechanical filtration, (EE144/85/1); Reference
• J.P. Buiteman and K.J. Ives, Filtration, workshop problems (LN 0023/04/1)
• J.P. Buiteman, K. Ghebremichael, Laboratory Process Technology (LN 0004/07/1).
• J.P. Buiteman, K. Ghebremichael and J. Schippers, Disinfection

• K.A. Ghebremichael, PhD, MSc
• S.K. Sharma, PhD
• Prof. N.J.D. Graham